It is standard fare for a recently appointed manager to praise their new club’s supporters, but the detail in Pierre Sage’s answer suggested he really meant it.
“First of all, it’s about the league, to be really honest,” the Frenchman said last month when asked why he had chosen to join Crystal Palace. “And after that it is a special club. It is the only club [in the Premier League] with ultras, and as I said, I like to play for the fans.”
Unfortunately for Sage, he never got the chance to experience the atmosphere he signed up for. Palace’s ultras group, the Holmesdale Fanatics, disbanded on the eve of the new season. It has not taken long for their absence to be felt.
“The flat atmosphere was a topic of discussion after both matches”
The Fanatics were founded in 2005 by a group of Palace season-ticket holders in Block B of the Holmesdale Road stand. By the end of that decade they were earning widespread praise for the colour, creativity and vibrancy they brought to the then-Championship club’s support, with flares and flags at the forefront and a drum setting the tempo for their European-style songs.
The Fanatics went from strength to strength following Palace’s promotion to the Premier League in 2013. Their entirely fan-funded tifos graced not only Selhurst Park, but Wembley and Leipzig’s Red Bull Arena, too. In 2019 the group moved from Block B near the corner flag to Block E directly behind the goal in the Holmesdale Road end, establishing itself as a vocal hub at the heart of Palace’s home support.
The hole they have left has been conspicuous in the early weeks of this season. Palace have lost their first two Premier League home games, 4-1 to Manchester City and 3-2 to Ipswich Town. The flat atmosphere was a topic of discussion after both matches.
The group’s decision to cease operations came as a surprise, even though tensions with the club had been building over the previous few years. Long-standing proponents of a grassroots, bottom-up approach to football fandom, the Fanatics have grown frustrated by the club’s increasingly top-down approach, exemplified by pre-match light shows and music blasted at a deafening volume immediately after the final whistle.
That culture clash over how best to generate an atmosphere formed part of their decision to step away.
“We have repeatedly warned the club that likeminded fans cannot congregate at Palace in the numbers required to sustain a growing active supporter culture,” a statement released in August said.
“There needs to be a drastic shift at Palace towards younger fans and a move away from a culture in which people attend the ground expecting to be entertained, towards a culture of supporters turning up to play an active role in influencing the result.”
The statement also aired the Fanatics’ grievances with the broader state of the sport in England.
“Increasingly driven out by sky-high ticket prices, needless restrictions that are designed to strip away the dignity of supporters, and relentless harassment and legal action, many young people are choosing to opt out of a game that seems determined to push them away.”
While many Palace fans have mourned their departure from the scene, others have been less sympathetic. The move from Block B to Block E displaced many long-standing season-ticket holders, fuelling resentment. Some supporters were displeased when the Fanatics appeared to have a section of away ends reserved for them in last year’s Conference League campaign amid suspicions they had not accrued enough loyalty points to qualify. Inevitably, their forthright political stances divided the fan base, delighting some and dismaying others.
Yet overall the Holmesdale Fanatics were a force for good at Palace, and you would be hard pressed to find anyone who thinks the atmosphere at Selhurst Park is better for their absence.
Despite Selhurst’s reputation for being a difficult place to go, Palace have had a curiously mediocre record in front of their own fans for much of their current 13-year spell in the top flight. In nine of those seasons, the Eagles have finished higher in the Premier League’s away table than the home equivalent.
The situation is unlikely to improve now Selhurst Park has lost its beating heart. Right now, home is where the hurt is for Crystal Palace.